


Cyrus' First Fire

by Dragonlingdar



Category: Octopath Traveler (Video Game)
Genre: Childhood Memories, Family Fluff, Gen, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-06-23 11:22:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19700356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonlingdar/pseuds/Dragonlingdar
Summary: If his parents wouldn't teach him how to use magic, Cyrus would just teach himself.





	Cyrus' First Fire

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Hachiya_Camus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hachiya_Camus/gifts).



> I hope you enjoy this, as you indicated carte blanche for making things. I personally think tiny-Cyrus is adorable, but...
> 
> As an aside, I am not your assigned creator; nevertheless, I hope you are satisfied by my offering as well.
> 
> Out of long-standing paranoia: Nothing Octopath Traveler belongs to me.

Cyrus took a deep breath and let it out in a determined huff.

He was going to get it right today. He was going to cast the fire spell he had read over and over in his dad’s Special Book. He had practiced the words until they  _ felt _ right and blurred together from how tired he was. He practiced until he was sweating and his hands glowed a little. He practiced until the edges of the paper he had written the words on until his hand hurt blackened and curled. He  _ knew _ he was close.

The problem he faced was what he could  _ test _ the magic on. He kinda liked everything he had and didn’t want to accidentally break something his mom or dad liked, so spent most of the morning of his experiment avoiding his Mom and going through his things to find an acceptable test subject. After hours of searching, he finally came upon something that he could lose for the sake of knowledge.

Teddy--his old teddy bear. 

Cyrus himself was too big for a teddy bear now and liked books a whole lot better anyway, so if he actually  _ did _ manage to set Teddy on fire, he wouldn’t be  _ that _ sad. He’d be a little sad, sure, because Gram had given Teddy to him as a birthday gift, but, really. He was a big boy now, he needed books. But people seemed to think he  _ shouldn’t _ have books, so he just got them from his dad’s library instead. He had especially wanted the one his dad said he couldn’t touch, so had eventually managed to drag it down and away from the library. It was almost as big as he (Cyrus) was and probably weighed a little more, but he had done it!

Once he figured out that the book was about  _ magic _ , he spent all the time he could studying it. He even stayed up way past his bedtime, hiding under his bed with a candle and the book, trying to unravel what the big words meant. Both his mom and dad practiced magic, but Cyrus knew they wouldn't help him, and would probably take the book away instead. So, Cyrus wrote down the words he didn’t understand and asked Gram what they meant, since she knew magic, too. Each time she told him, she looked like she was going to laugh, but didn’t. She even taught him how to say a few of them, but made him promise not to tell anyone that she had taught him. It was their secret.

Cyrus liked secrets.

So, after three months of working really hard, Cyrus felt it was time to try his hand at magic again. He had attempted the ice spell before, but it had failed. Still, he just  _ knew _ he that he had been  _ really _ close on that one, too. He had felt cold each time he tried, and his fingers had turned a little blue, but it hadn’t quite worked. He had thought it might work better because he tried it during the winter, but it didn’t. Thus, he had started all over with the fire spell. The thunder one simply sounded too scary and he was pretty sure his mom would be upset with him if he tried to cast it--thunder and lighting were a little more obvious than fire or ice.

_ I’m gonna get it right this time, _ he told himself as he carefully copied a magic circle out of the book that was meant to keep the magic in just one place.  _ I know it! I’ve done lots of work and Gram helped a lot, so I’m definitely going to do it right. _ He put Teddy in the middle of the design even as he felt a tiny twinge of guilt. 

“Okay,” he told himself and stepped back a few paces. “Time to focus!”

He propped the Special Book where he could see it, pulled back his hand as he intoned the complicated words, and then lashed his hand towards Teddy.

Who promptly briefly burst into flames. 

The fire faded quickly, however, having been little more than a flash, a spark, but it was  _ something _ and that was  _ amazing _ !

Cyrus looked at his hands, then at the scorched teddy bear, then at the book, and screeched in joy.

“ _ Mom _ ! Mom, look what I did!” Cyrus said and went tearing through his home. “Mom? Mom!”

“What is it, Cyrus?” his mother asked and caught him as he took a corner hard and nearly tripped into her skirts.

“I set Teddy on fire!” he proclaimed proudly.

“What?” his mother asked sharply, and her displeasure confused Cyrus.

“I set Teddy on fire,” Cyrus repeated.

“Why and how?”

“I found a book in Dad’s library that was fun to read! The Special Book! So I borrowed it and read it a lot and the more I read it the more I got it and I wanted to do what was in it so I tried and ice didn’t work so I tried fire and it  _ worked _ !”

Cyrus was confused by the pained, yet resigned look on his mother’s face.

“Mom?”

“Let me see the book and your teddy bear,” she said with a  _ heavy _ sigh.

“Okay!” Cyrus happily chirped. He took his mother’s hand in his own and pulled her over to his room. 

It smelled a little bit of singed fabric, but, sitting inside the protective circle was the worse-for-the-wear looking teddy bear, the rest of the room untouched. 

“That’s the book?” his mom asked, pointing to the tome that Cyrus had propped up against a pillow so he could more easily read it, pages upon pages of Cyrus’ own messy notes strewn about it.

“Yes!” Cyrus chirped happily.

“Do you remember what your father said about stealing his books?” she said as she squatted to take a look at the pages it was open to. “Especially  _ this _ book?”

“I was...I was gonna give it back!” Cyrus protested.

“You  _ understood _ these words?” his mother asked.

“Yup! I mean, I didn’t, but now I do!” Cyrus stated proudly, making sure to keep his Gram’s help a secret. “I think I say some of them wrong, though, and that’s why ice doesn’t work. I haven’t tried lightning yet, but I wanna now that I know I can do fire!”

“Maybe wait until your father is there with you, dear,” his mother replied and stood. “And outside. I’d rather you not bring down lightning inside your room.”

“Dad’ll teach me now?” Cyrus asked, almost bouncing with excitement. Whenever he had pestered his father before, the answer had always been: “When you’re older.”

Cyrus was 8. That was plenty old enough!

“I don’t think he has much choice anymore, if the other option is you teaching yourself. I should help as well, since I’m better with fire than he is,” Cyrus’ mother responded. “It is still remarkable that you  _ succeeded _ all on your own _... _ ”

“I can focus really, really good when I wanna,” Cyrus said. 

“Yes, you can,” his mother said as she dusted off her skirts. “I’m sure it must have taken a great deal of work to master the words to the fire spell. Why don’t we get you a snack?”

“Really?”

“Yes. I’ll teach you how to make cookies and you can start the oven fire with magic.”

“ _ Really _ ?”

“Yes.”

Cyrus happily clung to his mother’s hand as they walked to the kitchen, Cyrus happily chattering away.


End file.
